I finally got another Titan Changer!

You guys should know that I love weird Transformers releases by now… and that I have a weird attachment to the Titan Changers in general. People love to meme them up and so do I… but I actually do think they’re great for what they’re aiming to do.

Surprisingly enough, Optimus here is only my second Titan Changer after all this time. I got him as a Christmas present… wait. Does that make Optimus a great gift or a gag gift?

Vehicle mode

Optimus actually looks decent in truck mode… apart from the jarring lack of paint. The silhouette is spot on, there’s barely any robot mode kibble and you only really notice his hollowness if you look at his underside.

For playability, Optimus can roll well on all six of his wheels. I’m actually pleasantly surprised that they budgeted in all six wheels instead of having four working ones and a pair of fake ones.

Transformation

The transformation is incredibly simple but it’s also kinda brilliant how few steps you need to get from truck to robot mode and vice versa.

Robot mode

Optimus looks like he needs a sandwich man, he’s just so skinny. Skinniness aside, there’s a lot on molded detail here… that’s mostly left unpainted. That said, there’s a lot of silver paint on the chest and they actually painted the flames on his chest piece.

Even the First Edition and original AOE Leader Optimus didn’t do that! Come to think of it, this Optimus also has much less truck kibble than those two… impressive.

Optimus… look, did you expect him to have exceptional articulation? Quite frankly, I’m amazed he even has this much posability:

• His arms rotate as well as go in and out at the shoulders.
• His head can look down.

Gimmicks

Optimus is beyond Leader Class height and costs less than a Deluxe Class figure. That is his gimmick and that is the point of his existence.

Actually, his other gimmick is that he can transform to begin with. And he does transform between two distinct modes.

Toy or collectible?

Toy.

Look man, the Titan Changers are meant to be huge, affordable playthings for children and that is what Optimus is. His RRP is about $15 but you can get him cheaper than that at most places… and even cheaper used. Even at full price, I think he’s worth it!

Closing

As you can probably tell, I love this thing to death. But I’m also self-aware enough to understand that outside of children and people with odd taste, this guy probably seems terrible.

Titan Changer Optimus is a fantastic budget plaything for young children… but that’s it.